The day before yesterday, I was taking a flight, and while the flight was on the runway, somehow, my flight was at 90 degrees from the runway and I could see the other flight taking off. That was a really big aircraft. It was at a great speed before the takeoff. The engines could make even such a big aircraft take off and fly. Even after taking off, there is a lot of hard work, the engine has to perform. After moving around 10,000 meters, there is less struggle for the engine. However, the engine needs to keep working continuously else the flight will fall down.
The material world too is full of desires, fears, and temptations. They are everywhere like the gravity of the earth. It's very difficult to come out of the field of gravity unless we leave the Earth's field of gravity and move to outer space. Similarly, it is very difficult to get over the fears, desires, and temptations so long as we remain in this material world. However, there are occasions, when we take a flight and take off from the field of gravity. When we take some time off from the material world in the form of a retreat or meditation camp or a little break from the routine, that does something wonderful for us. While sitting in the flight, we can observe the Earth from a distance. Similarly, in such moments, we can see our lives from a little distance. In fact, we can see the whole of human existence from a distance without having to react to the situations.
The mind and the body get relaxed. It does not have to react to the situations and people. In such a state of relaxation, we get an opportunity to look at our own body and mind. Like sitting near the window on a flight, we see the same land where we reside. We see the limitations of that existence. Similarly, in a retreat, we can observe dispassionately our own body and mind. We can not be on the land and fly at the same time. Similarly, we can not be obsessed with our thoughts and observe them at the same time. Generally, we are so engrossed with our thoughts, that there is no space between our thoughts and ourselves. We are so obsessed with our opinions and beliefs that there is hardly any space between our thoughts and us. Thoughts define what we are.
That little space allows us to experience our existence beyond our thoughts. Firstly, the moment we set ourselves free from our opinions, we can put our opinions alongside the opinions of others and examine all these opinions dispassionately, without them being mine or yours. Secondly, we realize that our body is just like the land, and thoughts and opinions are like the winds. We experience that winds keep changing very fast. Sometimes they are slow, sometimes fast. Their directions also keep changing. Similarly, opinions and beliefs are also like that. Sometimes, we become a little aggressive, sometimes defensive. They keep moving in different directions. At the end of the day, they are just like the winds. Similarly, different fields of land sometimes become dry, and sometimes wet. Sometimes green and sometimes red, all depending upon the weather. Similarly, depending upon the circumstances, we all keep facing the pleasant and painful sensations in our bodies. That little distance allows us to realize the temporariness of these sensations like the changing conditions of the land.
We get to experience the fast-changing landscapes and winds from the flights. Thus, these sabbaticals help us be witness to our own bodies and thoughts. We appreciate that the pains and pleasures, ideas and opinions, that we have placed at the very center of our existence are so fast-changing and that is a reason why we are so insecure and fearful. If the foundation of our lives is fragile and temporary, how can our lives be secure? Whatever piece of land or the wind, we hold onto, will always be subject to change. Unless we recenter our existence around the divine or the consciousness, we will always be a victim of situations and circumstances.
These sabbaticals do something magical when we return back. Since we realize the reality of the body and the mind, we are able to remain observers for some time at least. However, the pushes and pulls of the world take over again and we again start reacting to the situations and people. It is probably because we have not spent enough time with the "self" and soon disconnect with the "self" to again get fixated on the body and the mind. However, there remain memories of our earlier experiences, even if faint, and when the body and the mind get exhausted from the worldly engagements, faint memories of the forgotten joy unconsciously motivate us for the sabbatical and we once again take the flight. This process probably goes on and off, until we get so connected to the "self" that no person or situation in the material world is able to eat away that space.
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